Long-Run Growth,

Between 1900 and today, measured U.S. real
GDP per worker increased by nearly 300%. True real GDP per worker
probably increased by about one percent per year more--for a
total growth over the course of the first 80 years of this century
of 700%.

The fall in the work year with the spread
of the eight-hour day, the paid vacation, and part-time work
means that total output per workhour probably grew by 850%.

Relative to this--very strong--long- run growth,
practically all of the business cycles of the twentieth century
appear to be small potatoes. Only the Great Depression and the
productivity slowdown of the 1970s are powerful enough to cause
any substantial interruption of long-run growth.